Quebec Court Judge Pierre Labelle asked if anyone had anything to add, took a deep breath, and delivered a scathing sentence Tuesday to a married couple accused in a scheme the experienced judge said he couldn’t find the words to describe.

Moments earlier, Anita Obodzinski, 53, and her husband, Arthur Trzciakowski, 50, had pleaded guilty to their roles in the defrauding of an 89-year-old victim between 2013 and 2014.

The couple then stood side-by-side in the courtroom as Labelle prepared to give his remarks.

“I have written them down,” Labelle said, “so I don’t go off script or put a foot in my mouth.”

The two accused, he said, had pleaded guilty in relation to a scheme he later called “a disaster.”

“You literally latched on to an elderly victim and altered her life,” Labelle said, addressing Obodzinski. “You falsely used the court’s authority to have the victim declared incapable of taking care of herself. You took her life savings, and then you had her thrown out forcibly from her own home.

“I have no words,” he added, “to express the disgust I feel when taking cognizance of these facts.”

The case revolves around a protection mandate prepared in 2013 that gave Obodzinski control of the victim’s well-being and finances.

According to an agreed statement of facts read in court on Tuesday, Obodzinski falsified a document to name herself as Veronika Piela’s mandatary, authorizing her to act on Piela’s behalf.

To obtain the false mandate, the statement says, Obodzinski enlisted the help of a doctor, co-accused Alissa Kerner, a social worker, as well as Kerner’s husband, lawyer Charles Gelber.

On two occasions, the statement says, Obodzinski and Trzciakowski entered Piela’s Côte-des-Neiges apartment without her consent, breaking the door when the 89-year-old refused to let them in. Kerner was also present on one occasion, taking pictures of Piela’s apartment.

With the mandate in effect, all of Piela’s money, a total of $474,174, was transferred to Gelber’s account.

In Feb. 2014, Piela was forced out of her home by a court order obtained by Obodzinski with Gelber’s help, and transferred to a residence “without her consent and without prior notification.”

Piela ended up leaving the residence on her own and meeting with police. It was eventually deemed she shouldn’t be under protective supervision, and her money was ordered returned to her. She died in December of 2016.

On Tuesday, Obodzinski pleaded guilty to six charges, including obstructing justice, mischief and knowingly using forged documents. Other charges she faced were dropped.

She was sentenced to two years of house arrest, followed by three years of probation. She will also need to complete 240 hours of community work and will be barred, for the duration of her sentence, from acting as anyone’s mandatary or having any banking statements in her possession that aren’t her own.

Trzciakowski, who pleaded guilty to mischief and unlawfully being in Piela’s apartment, received a conditional discharge and 170 hours of community work, meaning he won’t be left with a criminal record.

Both sentences were joint recommendations from the Crown and the defence.

Kerner, the social worker, pleaded guilty to unlawfully being in Piela’s home and one charge of mischief last year. In September, she received a conditional discharge with a probation period of six months and was ordered to pay $2,000. She has also been expelled from Quebec’s Order of social workers for three years.

Gelber, who was not charged in the case, has hearings before the Barreau du Québec’s disciplinary board in March.

After Tuesday’s guilty pleas, Crown prosecutor Fannie Turcot said she was satisfied with the outcome given the circumstances.

“It’s very difficult to bring cases likes this to term,” Turcot said. “What’s important is that even in cases with vulnerable victims or victims who die, such as this case, we need to try to bring them as far as possible. And that’s what we did.”

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